A last minute dash saw Carlin qualify in the top three positions for the first race of the Monza round.
Force India junior Jehan Daruvala snatched his first European Formula 3 pole position. He’ll start ahead of Lando Norris and Jake Dennis.
Callum Ilott looked set for another pole as the chequered flag came out. The Prema Powerteam driver pulled into the pits as the Carlin trio completed their final lap, and was knocked down to fourth as the times tumbled.
Norris, who set his first pole position in Silverstone, was only 0.030s behind Daruvala. The Brit had been running behind Ilott on track, benefitting from his slip stream, and claimed he would have been able to close the gap to his team mate had Ilott finished the lap.
Joel Eriksson also struggled with lack of slip stream. The Motopark driver had been top of the timings when Harrison Newey crashed at Lesmos. The session was red flagged with seven minutes remaining.
Eriksson was front of the queue in the pits when the track turned green again, and lacked slip stream in the final part of qualifying. He slipped back to fifth, behind Carlin’s fourth driver, Ferdinand Habsburg.
Surprise of the session was Maximilian Gunther, who finished practice second. The German struggled with traffic and qualified 14th.
